To home ed my dd

[Mishmashfamily]

After reading posts and posts about unhappy kids/parents at school I'm really considering it. Also I hate the fact that strangers that are apparently 'in charge' of our educational welfare can dictate when we take our children away, what they are taught ect....

I came out of the school system with nothing and had to learn every thing through college , taking courses. I think I could do a better job.

Would you do it?

I love it too, knickernicker!

Property of the state is absurd. Do get a grip.

Wow, this has become less of a bun fight than you'd expect in AIBU. Some interesting opinions and points. Great post from Ommward.

Interesting to read people's perceptions and misconceptions of HE, particularly the more barmy and ignorant ones.

I've HE'd DD for a over two years now as that's the best thing for her. We've just, after much deliberation, made the decision not to send her to secondary school. She has more friends and is far happier socially than she ever was at school. I'm just about to start running a science club for her and ten or so of her HE friends. Most of the HE kids I know of who are 14 or so are studying towards GCSEs, science subjects included. I personally very much hope that she will excel in the sciences, but obviously that's ultimately up to her. One of the things I wasn't that happy about with the school we looked at is that it only offered the combined science GCSE as standard and they were rather hazy about whether they'll be offering the three separate ones.

One of the biggest problems facing home educators is that real home education is nothing like what non-home-educators believe it to be.

Of course they are property of the state if you send them to school. You can hardly walk into school and demand your own curriculum or determine your own hours, or go on holiday when you want, or even eat what you want . If they are not a product of the state I'd like to know whose running the schools then .
Just because you can't see it yourself it doesn't mean that others can't see it. You must have heard the saying once they are at school they are no longer yours, well some people believe this and its their right to think how they like.

If you work, are you the property (slave) of your employer or are you entering a two way contract with them? Same goes for parents that decide to educate their children by sending them to school, rather than HE them.
property is a completely ridiculous term in this context.

Gruffalo2.

Yes you are a slave to an employer if there are stipulations terms and conditions you don't agree with and unless your work is completely satisfying, imo

www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/aug/13/education.educationnews1

Research showing that all home-educated children but ESPECIALLY those of under-educated parents, out-perform their school-educated peers.

Sorry, think that idea is totally ridiculous more. You obviously have a very negative outlook on society generally if you feel the whole workforce and every child in school are slaves.

weirdthing

That's a good article, its been shown a few times recently.

TheGruffalo2

It may seem a negative attitude to you but it couldn't be more positive depending on how you look at it.
My dc have grown up on the principle of getting good at something you really enjoy doing, not working towards a career or job to line somebody else's pockets.
If you do end up working for somebody else well you at least love what you are doing.
Some people work to live others live to work. I personally believe in the former.

But surely entering into a contract i.e. I will turn up at 8.30 am, work to the best of my abilities and leave at 5.30pm and in exchange you will provide me a safe and warm place to do this work, ensure I have sufficient training to undertake the work, have sick leave and pension cover and get a monthly salary is not slavery. It is my choice whether to enter into this contract and if I don't like it to seek employment elsewhere with a contract that I am happy with. With schooling the parents are agreeing to delegate the education of their children to people trained to do it, ones that agree to provide the best education they can, following school and government policies, who agree to look out for their welfare of the children and in return the parents agree that the school can receive the funding from the LA because their child is on role, to have them in school on time unless they are ill or for other valid reasons and that if they don't like that contract for any reason they can either seek a different school or decide to home educate.
How is that slavery?

Part of education is preparing to fit into a society where the majority of people have to work for others rather than be self employed and can be completely autonomous, and with at the current financial climate many are forced into jobs that they do not love, but can tolerate so they can actually earn a living. Not saying this is what we should aim for, but to educate children to think they do not need compromise, negotiate and conform to the boundaries of society is not really doing them any favours.

PS I'm a teacher and not anti-HE. For many children it is the ideal education, but saying I, as a teacher, am basically enslaving children is insulting!

whoops roll not role.

I think it works two ways, weirdthing, in that schools are nothing like HEers imagine them. They are all different, as are HEers. We appear to base our assumptions on very few families and hearsay,and assumptions on schools are based on a very small sample and hearsay.

I have to say that all my comments are pre Gove and if he is allowed to continue I can see a huge argument for keeping them home until 6/7 yrs. Testing 4 yr old is appalling!

The majority of parents appear to want breakfast clubs, after school clubs, much shorter holidays and schools to run free holiday clubs! Very few want full time education at home. I think we get a skewed view on here.

Roughly 1 in 5 home edders are ex-teachers (including me) so I think we do have a very clear idea how school works! I loved school but DS1 didn't and now I think HE is better.

By the way, it was my kids reading the Heaney/Dickens etc - they have hundreds of books including Beano annuals, Pokemon books, Spiderman etc. They love those kind of books too but crucially, they have no fear/aversion to 'geeky' things because no one tries to force 'good' literature down their throats.

Home educated ds now reading Lit at uni.
Accepting that the education system is not built for everybody is an educative step in itself. My ds was bullied, badly, by primary school staff, not by his peers.

There's also a huge amount of home educators who withdraw from schools for various reasons, so they have certainly experienced the school setting and know quite well how school works. I'm not sure what the statistics are but I personally know far more families who have deregistered than have home educated from the outset.

It's not Slavery Morethan. That's an absurd thing to say.

The state will educate your children for free. There are children in other parts of the world who would love the opportunities you dismiss as slavery.

To me institutionalising children, sometimes from birth until 18 is making them a product of the state, this is one of the many reasons we H.ed
Obviously if your children attend nurseries and schools you won't agree, its each to their own.
We are enjoying the freedom that H.ed has given us, and it works fine for us.

more Just so long as home edders remember children are not their property either.

School is not slavery. For some kids it's a welcome respite from their chaotic home lives.

For some kids school might be hellish but they're only there for 5 hours, 5 days a week, 39 weeks of the year.

I know that there are great home educators out there but when it's bad, I bet it's awful and the kids don't have any chance of things being picked up by external agencies.

I know fantastic families who home educate but I also know families where it's pretty mental. Any of you who home educate and are plugged into your home ed networks must know who I'm talking about. It's as disingenuous to say there are no serious problems with home educating as it is to say there are no screw ups in mainstream schools.

However, when things do go wrong in school, at least kids have some recourse, even if it's just in the form of pro-active parents pulling them out. At the very least, schools are accountable to parents. When things go wrong with home education, it can remain pretty hidden for a long time.

Anyone who talks about home education freeing children from the 'tyranny of the system' rings alarm bells. You have a pretty polemic world view that you have no problem imposing on your kids. It's no different to religious fanatics who home school to indoctrinate their kids in the one true faith. That really is tyranny.

to me institutionalising children, sometimes from birth until 18 sad is making them a product of the state,

Can I genuinely ask if you have anxiety problems? You sound quite paranoid, and I mean that out of concern.

I really feel that the home is the greatest influence on children. I don't think children are at school long, and I don't think they are institutionalised at all. Look at the (Scottish) Curriculum for Excellence- personalisation and choice is one of its key principles.

There's also a huge amount of home educators who withdraw from schools for various reasons, so they have certainly experienced the school setting and know quite well how school works.

They know how their school worked as a child and they know how their DC's schools worked-they don't know how other schools work. I am always astounded on here at how some schools work when they are nothing like the ones that I know.

I can understand entirely why some people HE, especially when school hasn't worked for their child, but alarm bells certainly ring for me when people start on about 'institutionalised children and slavery'. I assume that the parents had huge issues of their own which are going to detrimental to the child. You wonder what the poor child is going to be subjected to at home-certainly a narrow, biased view point.

An excellent post Maria33.

It makes me so cross to hear that people's children are thought to be 'institutionalised' merely because they get out of the house for 6 hours per day and are exposed to different adults and views. It is an insult to the poor people who really are 'institutionalised'.